A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and it's development, open to the public, which a quires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.
International Council of Museums
First definition 1947
This version 2007
History
*The university of Edinburgh Fine Art Collection.
*Idea of museaums- i.e. putting important objects in glass comes from the church. They have always put important, religious objects into boxes and cases to display them.
*Humanist Renaissance- truth to the world changes- shift from laws of universe come from god to man as the centre. Man and nature become more worth of study. Truth comes from observation of people rather than religion.
*Scholars looking at ancient text for truth rather than just the bible.
*People began collecting the natural world and the study of nature became more popular.
*Scientific methods were executed to gain knowledge.
*long corridors in country houses were places to go for exercise when it was raining outside- a place where they put tapestries, furniture, paintings etc. This then led into the idea of galleries.
Objects and Meaning
*Rational approaches to reason
*First room at British Museum is called Roo of Enlightenment. Shows progress
*Taxonomy
noun:Scheme of classification. Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778.
Made tables of the animal kingdom. Meant to be scientific and rational representation and system of classification.
*Classification in Museums- Interior grouping
Schools
Periods
Countries
Donors
Function of Artefacts
Artist/Creator
*Classification in Museums- Object level
Maker
Value
Originality
Significance
*Diagram from book by Susan Pierce- social plot of the creation of value
*Last 50 years people have began to say museums are socially strutted. Museums are not reflecting truth of the world, but creating one.
A Short History of Visiting.
*17th century distinguished travellers could visit private galleries. For wealthy people- art, objects available only to elite.
*Imperial palace in Vienna- people had to pay the curator to see exhibitions.
Visiting was not available to the general public
*In 1784 a Birmingham book seller, William Hutton, really wanted to see The British Museum and wrote about his visit. Was not impressed! Left none the wiser.
Backs up the idea that people would not know what they were looking at as knowledge and higher education was only for the rich.
*Society of Arts by Rudolph Ackermann from Microcosm of London (1809)
Free and open to anyone in the morning. Would have been the first time a lot of people would have seen an exhibition or even a painting!
However, the result was negative- over crowded by 'dregs of society' who 'don't understand art'.
The Museum- The Disciplinary Institution.
*Control-behaviour and what is shown.
*Leeds Museum established in 1819- a move to educate them so they would not drink and misbehave. Opened libraries, public parks, museums and encouraged church visits.
*National Portrait Gallery established 1846. It's remit wasn't about the quality of the art but the importance of the person.
-Who decides who is important?
-Pushing masses into museums and then choosing what they see-exhort control. Who and what is important.
*Little women, servants, non-white people represented and no gay, lesbian references!
Institutional Critique
-Power relationships. Philip sponsored Picasso. Who sponsors who? Haacke raised this issue.
The Museum Today
*Still very powerful institutions, flourishing and doing well
*More people go to museums than football matches
*Government label museums as centres for Social Change 2000
Modernist Museum
- liner
- disciplinary
- 'empty' visitors
- specialist knowledge
- dominant canon
- transmission theory
- reflects culture
- permanent knowledge
'Post Modern' museum
- Interpretive community
- emotions engaged
- reconstituted understandings
- new relationships between museum and visitor
- 'Constituted' culture
- meaning is relational
*Public Collectors.org
e.g. bus tickets, porn adverts, stamps etc
People display their collections. Shift of power and it is very open and available to anyone,
*'Only when the cultural power of the museum is acknowledged will museums truly understand and develop their role.' (Eileen Hooper- Greenhill 1999)
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